


Tiny Little Sparks

by TheAmazingBlue_J



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Awkward Conversations, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-01
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 06:30:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9535910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAmazingBlue_J/pseuds/TheAmazingBlue_J
Summary: Scenes from Edi and Sam's budding relationship





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jillyfae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jillyfae/gifts).



> This is my gift for Jillyfae for the Mass Effect Holiday Harbinger gift exchange  
> This has been a pleasure to write, I love Sam and Edi, and I hope you like it!  
> the remaining chapters will be up soon! <3

Samantha Traynor kept a white-knuckle grip on her cool through the remainder of her briefing with Commander Shepard, but her mind kept dragging her off to run circles around the revelation that Edi was no simple virtual intelligence.

_ An AI.. I should have guessed. How didn’t I guess? I treated her like an object. Worse than that, I actually-  _ She had to steer herself away from that line of thought every time she came back around to it, which was a couple times a minute, lest her mortification become apparent.

Finally, she made it to the elevator. A few moments of blissful privacy between decks to compose herself. Except she wasn’t alone, it turns out she had never been alone for a single moment since she set foot on the Normandy. The thought was.. Unsettling. To say the least.

Face beginning to burn red, Sam pressed the emergency stop, stranding the elevator between the CIC and the crew deck, and let herself slump down the wall, coming to rest on the floor with her face buried in her hands. A quiet trickle of hysterical laughter slipped out, despite her best efforts.

“Specialist Traynor, is something wrong? Your vitals indicate distress, but I detect no malfunctions in the elevator.”

And there she was, because  _ of course _ she would notice the elevator stopping. Sam struggled for a moment with how to explain embarrassment to an AI. Or shame. Instead, she raised her head to stare at the ceiling, the next best thing when the person you were talking to had no face to look at. 

“No, thank you Edi, I’m fine. And the elevator’s fine, but.. I think we need to talk.” the words came out in a rush along with the last of the laughter, and she made a conscious effort to straighten her spine. She needed to make this right.

“I too wish to speak with you, Specialist Traynor, but stopping the elevator seems unwise. Perhaps we can speak at your workstation, or-” 

“No, I’d really rather do it here” Sam cut Edi off before she could finish that thought. She didn’t want to have this conversation anywhere but in private, and as privacy was a scarce commodity on a warship, the elevator was as good as she was going to get.

Edi paused just long for Sam to notice “Very well, but if there is urgent need for the elevator, I will have to insist.”

“Thank you, Edi.” 

“What was it you wish to discuss?”

Sam stumbled for a moment, her thoughts hadn’t gotten that far yet, and while she knew  _ what _ she needed to say, she hadn’t the faintest idea  _ how _ to say it.

“I.. You.. You’re an AI!”  _ Oh, brilliant line, Sam, way to state the obvious. _ There was another pause as Sam tried to pull her foot out of her mouth, her mind scrambling for words that wouldn’t quite form on her tongue.

“I am,” Edi said after a moment that had felt like years to Sam. “I apologize for the deception, Jeff thought it was unwise to-”

“-To reveal yourself as an illegal AI. I understand. It’s not that, it’s...” She dropped her face back down into her hands and let herself slump again, staring at the ceiling was beginning to feel a little too much like looking Edi in the eye, and her guilt was weighing too heavily on her for that. “I owe you an apology, Edi.”

“That is not necessary.”

“It is, Edi. It just.. IS.” Sam sighed and slumped farther down the wall, trying to make herself as small as possible before tilting her head back to look at the ceiling and taking a deep breath. Guilty or not, Edi deserved better than a mumbled apology from a hidden face. “I’m sorry, Edi.” 

“Specialist Traynor, I do not see anything that requires an apology on your part. You have already apologized for your statements regarding my voice, but even that I do not think necessary. You were merely expressing an attraction, a very common human behavior to my understanding.”

“It  _ is  _ common, but what I said was still wrong! I.. objectified you. My conduct was inappropriate, and it doesn’t matter if I thought you were a VI, because you aren’t. You are a person, Edi, and you deserve far better than that.”

The elevator hung in silence for a few moments,  and Sam held her breath, waiting for… What? Absolution? Edi didn’t seem to think there was even a problem. Somehow, that made it worse.

“Very well, I accept your apology, Specialist Traynor.”

Sam’s held breath left her in a rush when Edi broke the silence, and her tongue tied up for a moment. What do you say to the AI you’ve been sexually harassing for the last six months? ‘Thank you’ seemed so inadequate, but since ‘thank you’ were the only words she had, they would have to do.

“Thank you, Edi… I.. I don’t really know what else to say..” she trailed off and shrugged helplessly, praying that whatever words she happened to find next didn’t end with her putting her foot in her mouth. Again.

Thankfully, Edi saved her just as she was about to open her mouth once more, words only half formed on her tongue.

“Might I suggest that we.. ‘got off on the wrong foot?’ I believe what’s usually done in these circumstances is to ‘start over’”

“Start over? You mean as friends?” Sam couldn’t help the hint of eagerness that snuck into her voice.

“Friends..” Edi sounded thoughtful, if it was possible for an AI with a simulated voice to sound thoughtful. “I think I would like that very much, Specialist Traynor. Working with you has been an.. Enlightening experience. I would very much like it too continue.”

Sam drew her first easy breath in half an hour and found herself beginning to smile. “I’d like that too, Edi. But please, if we’re going to be friends, please call me Sam.”


End file.
